Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Gabe and Sweet Chile--1846 ((in, Memories of Old Josh)(#44))

Gabe and Sweet Chile—1846
(In a wink of an Eye (in, Memories of Old Josh)
Episode #44, 2-25-2008


Advance: Well, the truth of the matter is, Josh had a wife, believe it or not. And her name was Marinutita Jefferson George, for short, she was called Sweet Chile. Her and her boyfriend, Gabe, visited Josh once (perhaps twice), and to Jordan’s surprise, met his mother. She saw at first her two boys from a distance, then came closer to get a better look, but she wasn’t really there to see the boys, she wanted money from old Josh, she was on her way down to New Orleans, and during that visit, Amos had been picking cotton over at the neighbors plantation, and stopped to see Josh, and got an eye full of Sweet Chile (and that was that), and she even winked at him, so he says. Sweet Chile has a different story of course, and Gabe, he is mad as a disturbed hornets nest. Josh, he don’t care one way or the other, to be honest, he just wants her gone, and the sooner the better. Mr. Charles Hightower, the owner of the plantation, has gone to New Orleans also, he often does, and only God knows what he does down there, but Josh kind of knows, he’s been down there before with him. In any case, he is due back tomorrow, and he’d take a liking to see Sweet Chile around, she can make a scene. So here we are, all in the back by the corral, where old Nelly the cow is, the boy’s are staring at their with wide open white eyes—like eggs, and their mouths open like hungry lions, and Gabe pushing Amos away from Sweet Chile, and Josh saying he hasn’t any money to go on back to where she came from (Silas is thirteen years old, about, and Jordon a few years younger).

(In actuality, Jordon is down in the grocery store in Ozark, in the backroom, where he has a cot, it is the year 1909, and he is in his seventies, he is daydreaming of that day he and his brother met his mother, kind of a sour day, because they really didn’t get to say much, and pa, he was in such a hurry to get rid of her because Gabe and Amos were going to duke it out, but this is how the dialogue went, how Jordon remembers it anyhow.)



Josh: “Sweet Chile, I done thought you flew da cope, you’d be down in New Orlean’ doin’ wuh you do da best, and we all knows wuh dat is?”
Sweet Chile: “Is you callen’ me a whore?”
Josh: “No, cuz my boys is her, but if da not, I’d be so doin’”
Gabe: “No cause for dat now, Mr. Josh, you done married dis woman, so you is not so hot!”
Josh: “I done married a mule, you is too good for her, but you is a fool to say, I is dumb, cuz yous git be dumber dan I, cuz you is still wid her, she done flew da cope long ago, I is da lucky one, you…hummm—still da dumb one!”
Gabe: Dat dare friend of you, Amos, he best keep his eye on da sun or da ground, cuz I is aiming to pluck dem big eye’ out of his head, fer lookin’ at me gal!
Amos: I is ready ole man, cuz I pick cotton, I gits a good right arm, and aiming to punch you in dat dere big snoot of yours, and Sweet Chile, she gits a good man like me, and gits rid of you once an fer all!
Josh: You-al dont know wuh you is saying pal, she is like dat moccasin snake, she kill ya wid one bit.

(Sweet Chile is just looking and laughing, at these men fighting for her, and giving Josh a smirking smile back, kind of saying, ‘Look, I still got what it takes,’ and Josh nodding his head, the boys looking at Josh and their mother.)(What happened after all this was simple, Mr. Hightower came back early, and saw Sweet Chile in the backyard by the cow fence, and when she got a look at him, and he just stood there like a stone statue, she and Gabe took off, because she knew Old Man Hightower from when she was married, he was no one to fool with, he would have called the sheriff, and she had no papers to show she was a free slave, and she wasn’t, Gabe was though, and that usually worked, because he’d show his papers, and say ‘this her is me wife,’ and that would usually work, if not, they’d run like hick into the nearest woods, or down the quicken ally in town to avoid any more trouble.)




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